Wool/Meat

Wool can be an added bonus. On Etsy a raw fleece can go for $30 to $60. The cost to hire a professional shearer at the writing of this page is around $100 for 10 sheep or under. The cost of good shears to shear yourself is anywhere from $100 to $500+. We paid around $170 for a refurbished electric shear from the Oster Factory in our area. Just keep in mind, you may need to shear a couple of years to be able to sell the fleece for a higher price. Second cuts are not desirable from anyone using wool for spinning/arts. There are many videos on shearing so it is a skill worth learning if you want just a few fleeces.

Your sheep are sheared, now what?: You can sell raw fleece, process your fleece yourself, or send it to a processing mill. Processing fleece yourself can be a time consuming process, though it does save money. I won’t go into details on processing wool, there is already so many materials and videos online to help with that.

Meat: The cost to take a lamb/sheep to a slaughter house in 2024…I took a grown wether (medium size) to the slaughter house back in July. We got back 33 pounds of meat for the cost of $150, a lot of it was ground. This came out to be around $4.55 per pound. My cost of input was around $50-$60, that adds another $1.65 per pound. Total: $6.20 per pound. Not too bad considering grass fed ground lamb at shops today is around $7-$10 a pound. The smaller the lamb/sheep the more per pound due to there being a flat rate kill bill and disposal. I have butchered quail, rabbits, sheep, and pigs on my farm. Sheep are fairly easy, specially with a smaller lamb. The hardest part, is finding a cold spell so the meat can hang 2 days without getting over 40 degrees. If it warms up over 45 during the day I put it in a huge cooler with ice till the weather cools back off that evening. I have heard lamb does not have to hang but I think the quality improves if it is hung at least 24 hours.